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Report: 260,000 died in Somali famine

Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoJerome Delay | AP file photoThis 2011 photo shows the shrouded body of 12-month-old Liin Muhumed Surow, who died of malnutrition, near Dadaab in Kenya close to the Somali border. Officials say a report gives the highest death toll yet from Somalia's 2011 famine, estimating that 260,000 people died - more than double previous estimates.

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NAIROBI, Kenya -- The 2011 Somali famine killed an estimated 260,000 people, half of them age 5
and under, according to a new report to be published this week that more than doubles previous
death toll estimates, officials told The Associated Press.

The aid community believes that tens of thousands of people died needlessly because the
international community was slow to respond to early signs of approaching hunger in East Africa in
late 2010 and early 2011.

The toll was also exacerbated by extremist militants from al-Shabab who banned food aid
deliveries to the areas of south-central Somalia that they controlled. Those same militants have
also made the task of figuring out an accurate death toll extremely difficult.

A Western official briefed on the new report - the most authoritative to date - told AP that
it says 260,000 people died, and that half the victims were 5 and under. Two other international
officials briefed on the report confirmed that the toll was in the quarter-million range. All three
insisted they not be identified because they were not authorized to share the report's contents
before it is officially released.

The report is being made public Thursday by FEWSNET, a famine early warning system funded by
the U.S. government's aid arm USAID, and by the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit -
Somalia, which is funded by the U.S. and Britain.

A previous estimate by the U.K. government said between 50,000 and 100,000 people died in the
famine. The new report used research conducted by specialists experienced in estimating death tolls
in emergencies and disasters. Those researchers relied on food and mortality data compiled by the
Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit.

Because of the imprecise nature of the data available, the toll remains only an estimate.

When asked about the report, Somalia Health Minister Maryan Qasim Ahmed said she didn't want
to comment until she read it because of questions she had about the accuracy of the figures.

Sikander Khan, the head of UNICEF in Somalia, also said he needed to look at the report's
methodology before commenting specifically. But he said generally that the response to the famine
was problematic because it depended on political dynamics. He said the international community
needs to change the way it classifies famines.

"You lose children by the time people realize it's met the established definition of famine,"
he said.